Orkut Founder Büyükkökten Asks Users to Revive 2014-Shut Network

Orkut founder Orkut Büyükkökten, 51, has launched a public campaign to revive the eponymous social network that Google shut down in September 2014, asking former users to register support at Orkut.com.

In a post on X on Thursday, Büyükkökten urged visitors to add their names and invite others to back the comeback. He published a separate letter on Orkut.com laying out his vision.

The campaign arrives more than a decade after Google discontinued Orkut, which had drawn about 300 million active users at its peak and dominated social networking in India and Brazil before ceding ground to Facebook.

What did Büyükkökten say about modern social media?

In the letter, Büyükkökten attacked the trajectory of social platforms over the past two decades, singling out algorithmic feeds and AI-generated content. "Artificial intelligence is extraordinary technology, but it's dissolving the one premise that made social networking special and worth building: that there was a person on the other side," he wrote.

He framed the proposed revival as a return to first principles. "I know how to get there: we rebuild the internet we first loved. The one with authentic people, real connection, and genuine belonging," Büyükkökten added.

Why did Orkut fail the first time?

Büyükkökten launched Orkut in 2004 as a side project while employed at Google. The platform peaked in India and Brazil but could not hold off Facebook's global expansion. Google shifted engineering resources to YouTube and, later, Google+, and pulled Orkut offline in September 2014.

Has Büyükkökten tried this before?

Yes — twice. In 2016, two years after Orkut's shutdown, he launched Hello, a social network built around shared interests. Hello attracted more than 2 million downloads worldwide before closing in 2020.

In 2022, Büyükkökten posted a note on Orkut.com saying he was "building something new" without offering details. Two years later, in 2024, he told WIRED he was developing a social network that would "leverage AI and machine learning" to foster community. That platform has not launched.

What does the campaign actually deliver?

Büyükkökten has not disclosed whether a new Orkut is in active development or whether one will ever ship. The current push amounts to a sign-up drive at Orkut.com, with no stated launch date, funding details, or product roadmap. An email to Orkut seeking comment from Büyükkökten did not receive a response.

What is at stake?

The revival pitch lands at a moment when incumbents such as Meta, X, and TikTok face sustained criticism over bot-driven feeds, AI-generated content, and engagement-optimized design. Büyükkökten's anti-algorithm message aligns him with a broader cohort of founders pitching smaller, community-focused alternatives — though none of his prior attempts have come close to Orkut's 300 million-user scale.

Whether Büyükkökten can convert nostalgia and a sign-up list into a working product remains the open question. For now, the campaign is a declaration of intent rather than a return, and a test of whether a 20-year-old brand name still carries commercial weight.